§1. By its very nature, the state of consecrated life is neither clerical nor lay.

§2. That institute is called clerical which, by reason of the purpose or design intended by the founder or by virtue of legitimate tradition, is under the direction of clerics, assumes the exercise of sacred orders, and is recognized as such by the authority of the Church.

§3. That institute is called lay which, recognized as such by the authority of the Church, has by virtue of its nature, character, and purpose a proper function defined by the founder or by legitimate tradition, which does not include the exercise of sacred orders.

What is this site?
CanonLaw.Ninja is a website that allows you to search canon law and other various church documents.

Is CanonLaw.Ninja up-to-date?
To the best of my knowledge, as of May 9, 2019, all of the documents on CanonLaw.Ninja are up to date. CanonLaw.Ninja includes the changes promulgated in Omnium in Mentem, Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus, De Concordia inter Codices and Pope Francis' update to the Catechism.

Can I donate?
Donations are welcome to help offset server & domain costs: PayPal - CashMe.

I have a suggestion or question!
Send an email to [email protected] and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. If I can do something that would make the site more useful to you, I'd love to help!

Credits
Canons and cross-references were scraped from jgray.org. Catechism paragraphs were scraped from vatican.va. Other documents were scraped from various sources.